Matt Clements said his St Neots side are optimistic ahead of a crucial week after their 2-1 win over Basingstoke Town.

St Neots had to come from one goal down when Sam Deadfield opened the scoring for the visitors before Shane Hill levelled on his debut with Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson added the decisive strike before the break.

St Neots have two crucial fixtures in their survival bid in the Evo-Stik League Southern, Premier Division this week against fellow struggles Chesham and Cinderford.

But for the time being at least, they can enjoy moving out of the relegation zone as the teams around them did not pick up any points.

Clements said: “The last three games we have played better and got nothing.

“But the boys worked hard and I’m very proud of them, we were hanging on a bit at the end and definitely rode our luck at times, but it was a fantastic result.”

Clements was also pleased that, after a difficult few weeks playing well against teams chasing for promotion, his long held belief that once they played sides in and around them they would pick up points came to fruition.

He said: “We’ve played Dorchester who are in and around us and have got a positive result, and again if we play the way we did against sides around us and work hard we will be competitive.

“If we come out of these three matches with seven to nine points, that will be absolutely fantastic.”